Hi TFP!

[Donniesmail3353]

Hi all,

I want to thank this forum and community for being one of the best I've ever witnessed. I've learned more about my pool and pool chemistry by reading on this site in two weeks, than my "pool store" aka les-lies taught me in the first three months as a new pool owner. Being a skeptical person by nature, I started researching things about my pool after two months of "water test and you need this $80 chemical... You need this to offset this, blah blah". I spent hours reading the forums here. And everything started to click once I was educated a bit. I understood what the pros and cons of all the garbage they push are. And more importantly, I bought a Taylor k-2006 to see for myself. I can't dispute what I see in black and white, and after reading all the chemical analysis from posters like chemgeek, tbizzle, lion, and countless others, I come to realize that my pool store sold me wrong chemicals, then more chemical to offset the wrong chemicals. A quite brilliant Ponzi scheme IMO. Anyway, all this rambling was to thank all you in the forum. Reading thread after thread, I absorbed priceless info.

My pool chemistry is:

Fc 6.2
Cc 0 (1)
Ph 7.6
Ta 150
Ch 440 (2)
Cya 100 (3)
Temp 81

Key: (1) I don't trust cc test due to my friendly pool store selling me on a bucket of fresh n clear shock. Ordered the proper Taylor reagent to offset false test (thanks to this forum), but haven't received yet.
(2) ch is high thanks to my pool store selling me a huge bucket of cal-hypo as my primary sanitizer... Now I know better and bleach sanitize
(3) I have never used triclor, diclor, or cya. When I bought this home and pool in Feb, the previous owner had a floaty. I can only assume the 100 cya I inherited was from triclor pucks. After my initial test read a bit higher than 100 (max scale on my Taylor kit) I did a diluted 1:1 test, and came up with 40-50 which confirms to me it's really 100, and not way higher. I live in drought stricken Southern California, so I'm trying my best to deal with the high cya/CH without having a water change.

Any input is welcomed, and thanks again all. Great site and community!!

Don

 

[Patrick_B]

Welcome Don, and thanks for the kind words about the forum!

You know it I'm sure, but the cya needs to come down. We have other Cali folks in the same boat, and unfortunately, the answer is the same for all. Year after year, we have over stabilized pools, and the answer remains the same unfortunately. Good luck, and enjoy the forum.

 

[cowboycasey]

you are all over it, knowing is half the battle... just keep that FC level above the recommended level Pool School - Chlorine / CYA Chart

You are under it right now with a fc of 6, you want to target 12 and never go below 7 or greenies can get a foothold.. SLAMing at 100 CYA would take a truckload of bleach...

maybe you can fill 500 to 1000 gallons a month to try to get the cya down over time

 

[BoDarville]

Welcome to TFP!

A couple of thoughts on the water-draining situation...

1. I seem to remember reading recently that a partial/gradual water replacement is OK provided that the drained water was used to water the lawn. This may vary among jurisdictions, so you may want to check on that. We have some members who do this on a fairly regular basis to deal with high CH. The chlorine in the water will not harm the lawn as it will be quickly consumed.
2. You can look into Reverse Osmosis (RO) treatments. Although these are primarily used to remove calcium in the water, it may also remove CYA. Again...worth checking into
3. One of our moderators had ~ 200ppm CYA in his pool and gradually got it down into the recommended range with backwashes and small drain/refills. Although it took a while and required diligence in maintaining proper FC, the pool remained clear throughout this process.

 

[tim5055]

Welcome to TFP!!

Don,

I see Bo is talking about me again.....

Like you I purchased a house that came with a pool. I also headed out to the pool store with my bottle of water. I was lucky, it was winter so they were not in high sales mode yet. They said there were some issues that they would deal with in the spring. Well, before spring I discovered TFP.

The pool store used one of the new wiz bang computerized water testers (Spin Lab) and told me my CYA was 80. When I got my test kit I also had to do diluted tests and with the error rate using them I can only say I was above 200, but probably below 250, maybe.

My water was clear, but like you I had an issue with a drain & refill. My lot is the lowest lot in the neighborhood. When it rains water actually pushes up out of the ground in my yard. I can watch it pushing up and out of the expansion joints on my concrete driveway. So, I guess I have a high water table.

For 18 months I have been aggressive with backwashing, drained a few inches here and there and harvested rainwater form my roof gutters into the pool. Now 18 months later my CYA is 50. I actually had it down to 40, but just floated some tabs to bring it back up.

So, if it's clear now, keep it that way. I would recommend automation your chlorine additions. A SWG or even a Stenner Pump assures you that your chlorine is added every day. With high CYA you can't afford to miss a couple of days adding chlorine and go green.

 

[Richard320]

Welcome!

Test results are fine... but what does the water look like? Nobody but us cares about test results - they want crystal clear sparkly water that doesn't smell or irritate eyes.

If you have no algae, you're in better shape than I was when I took over my pool. I didn't have algae, but I had CYA in the 220-240 range and your CH reading now is the same as the lowest mine has been in 5 years.

The CH isn't a problem. Lower the TA and you can keep the CSI in the safe zone.
The CYA level is manageable, but you need to keep adequate FC in there - in your case a minimum of 8 and a dosing target of probably 11. Which brings up the complication. The pH test isn't accurate above 10 FC. Photographic proof. Things are a lot simpler if you can maintain FC below 10, which means CYA down to 80 or less. I did successfully manage my pool with the high CYA, but it wasn't easy and I don't recommend it.

To counter my high CH that keeps rising, I routinely drain and refill a few inches at a time. If you figure your average depth is 60", replacing 3" is 5% reduction in CH and CYA. Water the grass with it and use the irrigation water you saved to refill the pool. In a couple weeks, you can have things in a much nicer place.

Final notes: check out Extended Test Kit Directions You can use 10 ml water for the FAS-DPD test and the CH test to reduce the amount of reagents. The FAS-DPD test also doesn't require two full scoops of powder. One is usually enough, so long as you have a few undissolved granules in the solution before you start counting drops.

 

[Donniesmail3353]

Thanks for the input folks! The water is very clear, and doesn't smell or taste of chlorine. Doing small weekly changes isn't something that I had thought of, but a great idea. Use the pool water for the lawn and tap water I normally run thru sprinklers onto the grass to top off what I pumped out. Even if just and inch or two a week, over time will get me where I need to be.

Getting my TA lowered is going to be a task as well. Mostly everything I read here says MA to lower PH followed by aeration to bring back up, and TA stays lowered. My challenge is my pool has 2 returns.. Both on the shallow end, and neither have the plastic adjustable gizmo I've seen before in pools to change flow direction. Both water streams are basically just holes formed in the concrete pointing at about a 30 degree angle down. So short of buying an air compressor or forcing the family to swim the whole day, I'm not sure how to accomplish the aeration necessary for this. Oh, and the returns are irritating on multiple levels for me. I'm a little leary when adding MA and chlorine cause the nature of the jets is to force the chemicals straight to the floor. Which makes me fear the paint getting messed up in that area.

Thanks again guys!

 

[Texas Splash]

Folks have used a variety of methods to adjust the flow of their return jets for the reasons you mentioned. By looking at your returns, can they be unscrewed? Usually the returns can actually be replaced with the adjustable "eyeballs". Others may have suggestions as well. Glad to see you are making progress on your water chemistry. Enjoy!

 

[Donniesmail3353]

I will get in today with the pump off and examine the return ports. Maybe I'll luck out and they are threaded, and adding the adjustable eyes will be a breeze